Castillo takes extra satisfaction in being alive and kicking for Lions

“When life punches you, you have to punch back,” Sergio Castillo said. It’s something the B.C. Lions kicker learned about the time he started walking.When Sergio Castillo first saw the picture of Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his 23-month-old daughter Angie Valeria lying face down in the Rio Grande, he didn’t see a symbol for the tragedy and heartbreak that takes place daily at the southern border.No, that’s what the rest of the world saw when it first encountered the image of Salvadoran migrants Martinez Ramirez and his little girl, drowned in the river that was supposed to offer them a new life. For Castillo, it represented something entirely different. It was his life, his home, his people. It was the place where his father and mother came and found that better life.It was the start for him and the end for Martinez Ramirez and his daughter. The B.C. Lions placekicker knows it could have gone the other way.That’s why he said a silent prayer for the Martinez Ramirez family. That’s why he says a prayer for all his people.“It breaks your heart to see what people have to go through,” Castillo said. “No one wants to leave their home country. If things were good there, they’d never leave but they’re trying to find a better life.“I saw that picture this morning (he shakes his head). I have a lot of friends and family who’ve done that swim. It’s not easy. I’m one of the lucky ones.”This day, Castillo is speaking at the Lions’ practice facility in Surrey which is some 4,000 kilometres from his home in La Joya, Texas, and 4,000 light years from the world he left behind. Castillo’s father Sergio, a horse trainer, crossed the Rio Grande in the 1980s and settled in La Joya. His mother, Maria, crossed as a nine-year-old with her mother Maria Trijo and her three sisters.In 1990 Sergio was born in La Joya, the first of his family to be born stateside and went to West Texas A & M University in Amarillo, the first of his family to graduate from college.Now, he’s kicking for the Lions, going eight-for-eight in field goals over their first two games while averaging just under 40 yards a punt. Two year ago, he shredded his ACL in the middle of a breakout year with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and sat out the 2018 CFL season.You’d ask him how he handled the adversity but, somehow, it seems like a stupid question.“You have to expect this out of yourself,” Castillo said. “But more than anything it brings that peace and confidence that, wow, I can do this again.”Castillo then rattles off something in Spanish while throwing imaginary punches in the air. He’s asked for a translation.“When life punches you, you have to punch back,” he said.Which is something he learned about the time he started walking.La Joya is located on the Rio Grande in the extreme south of Texas. Brownsville, where the picture of Martinez and his daughter was taken, is 90 minutes away. The closest big city is San Antonio which is four hours away but, to get there, you have to go through the checkpoint in Falfurrias, which is actually north of La Joya.Did we mention it’s a complicated part of the world?“San Antonio was like Disneyland to us,” he says. “But it was like crossing another border to get there and the only way we could make it is if we made state in football or it was school-related.”Castillo, as it happened, took up kicking in Grade 9 and made the La Joya High School football team in Grade 10.“To play for La Joya in those days when there were 10,000 people in the stands, man that was big,” he said. “It meant a lot.”His kicking prowess eventually led him to West Texas A & M and the extreme north of the state. Four years later, he left A & M with an expanded world view after a record-breaking football career.“The whole Rio Grande Valley is Hispanic,” he said. “I didn’t hang out with white people, coloured people, Asians until I got to college. That was a culture shock, man.“Our first class was government and they were 60 people in it. There was one black guy, one Asian and me. We all sat together.”After various NFL tryouts, Castillo caught on with Winnipeg in 2015, moved on to Ottawa the next year and seemed to find a home in Hamilton in 2017. After 14 games, he’d made 29 of 34 field goals while averaging 45.1 yards a punt but tore his ACL while covering a kick in a late win over Winnipeg.The Ticats released him before the 2018 season. After a year out of the game, the Lions came calling in the middle of their training camp and Castillo won the job.“I knew I still had it but in this league you have to prove yourself every week,” he said.But he had this thing he learned at a young age; something he inherited from his grandmother and mother, something that lives on with his cousin Tito who just graduated from law school and three other cousins who are, “way smarter than me.”“It came from my grandmother,” Castillo said. “She always found a way. She was looking for a better life for her family and she laid the foundation for my aunts and my mom.”And she taught her grandson to punch back after he’d been hit. Where he comes from, you need that skill.ewilles@postmedia.comTwitter.com/willesonsports NEXT GAMESaturdayB.C. Lions vs. Calgary Stampeders4 p.m., McMahon Stadium, TV: TSN, Radio: TSN 1040 AMCLICK HERE to report a typo.Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com